We investigate the galaxy bispectrum induced by the nonlinear gravitational evolution as a possible probe to constrain degenerate higher-order scalar tensor (DHOST) theories. We find that the signal obtained from the leading kernel of second-order density fluctuations is partially hidden by the uncertainty in the nonlinear galaxy bias, and that the kernel of second-order velocity fields instead provides unbiased information on the modification of gravity theory. Based on this fact, we propose new phenomenological time-dependent functions, written as a combination of the coefficients of the second-order kernels, which is expected to trace the higher-order growth history. We then present approximate expressions for these variables in terms of parameters that characterize the DHOST theories. We also show that the resultant formulae provides new constraints on the parameter space of the DHOST theories.
